Chancellor Rishi Sunak with ORE Catapult’s Tony Quinn

ORE Catapault’s 7MW Levenmouth Demonstration Offshore Wind Turbine off the coast of Fife was visited by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak last week. He witnessed first-hand the impact of the world’s largest and most advanced open access offshore wind turbine dedicated to research and demonstration in supporting the commercialisation of innovative new technologies, the growth of the UK supply chain and meeting the UK’s decarbonisation and net-zero targets.

Since 2015, the turbine has supported 140 technology demonstrations and 45 R&D projects. The Chancellor met with three UK companies that have already benefitted significantly from working with ORE Catapult through access to the Levenmouth Demonstration Turbine. Rovco, an AI subsea inspection software company, has grown from two people in 2016 to 106 today, with plans to grow to over 200 in the next 12 months.

Pict Offshore, a spin-out from Limpet Technologies, formed a joint venture with a leading offshore wind developer and opened a factory in Fife to manufacture its industry-leading offshore personnel transfer system and Cyberhawk, a drone-based blade inspection company, has increased its headcount by 54% in the past year and now employs 111 people.

Tony Quinn, ORE Catapult’s test and validation director, hosted the visit and underlined how vital continued investment in our next-generation of world-leading test assets is to achieving the UK’s Net Zero targets by 2050.

Mr Sunak said: “Harnessing innovative new technologies will be crucial to help the UK meet its climate goals and shape our economy for the future. It is brilliant to see ORE Catapult’s Demonstration Turbine helping companies to commercialise their ideas and boosting green industries in Scotland, particularly as we prepare to host COP26 in Glasgow later this year.”